Alice Gerrard

Biography

8 July 1934, Seattle, Washington, USA. Gerrard grew up in California and while still at college in the late 50s, she became greatly attracted to old-time and bluegrass music. She learned to play guitar and banjo and began writing her own material early in her career. At college, she had met (and married) Jeremy Foster (a friend and former classmate of Mike Seeger) and together they organized the Green County Stump Jumpers. In the early 60s, she met Hazel Dickens, and the two formed a partnership that saw them write songs about various aspects of life, as well as performing together at numerous folk festivals all over the south. In their work both together and apart, Dickens and Gerrard have done much to influence countless traditional music fans as well as pioneering the role of women in bluegrass.

In 1972, for some time, they joined with Seeger (whom Gerrard had married in 1970), Tracy Schwarz and Lamar Greer to perform as the Strange Creek...